Beit Berl College

This article critically examines the relationships between power, knowledge, and space through an analysis of Israeli geographic education, illuminating how dominant national narratives survive superficial multicultural reforms. Despite official policy changes toward multiculturalism since the early 2000s, geography textbooks continue to function as tools of epistemic control through national literacies, reinforcing ethno-national spatial consciousness while systematically excluding Palestinian collective memory. The study focuses on the persistent silencing of the Nakba, a foundational element of Palestinian identity and a direct counter-narrative to Zionism, revealing how power operates by neutralizing difference rather than overtly rejecting it. This strategy ensures that the foundational territorial narrative remains uncontested while maintaining a rhetorical commitment to multicultural principles. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research combines critical content analysis of state-approved textbooks with survey data from Jewish students (n=90) and geography teachers (n=16). The findings demonstrate that multicultural discourse has failed to meaningfully disrupt dominant narratives or expand the boundaries of cultural recognition. Geographic education continues to symbolically delineate “us” and “them,” reinforcing national-Zionist spatial representations despite official multicultural rhetoric. Through comparative analysis, including Turkey, India, Hungary, France, the United States, and Canada, the study situates the Israeli case within a broader pattern of how nation-states manage cultural diversity while maintaining control over knowledge and memory.

This qualitative study explores the induction experiences of Palestinian Arab novice teachers in Jewish-majority schools in Israel during a period of intense national tension (2023–2025). Amid ongoing teacher shortages in the Jewish sector and a surplus of qualified teachers in the Arab sector, Boundary-Crossing Teaching (BCT) has become a notable phenomenon. Using semi-structured interviews and reflective journals of 23 beginning teachers and eight mentors, the study investigates how minority educators navigate cultural and political divides in a conflict-affected society. The findings reveal that during periods of heightened tension, teachers’ professional identity is often overshadowed by ethnic suspicion, leading to a “dual burden” of professional and national representation. The data shows that teachers navigate national ceremonies through “strategic ambiguity”—performing outward compliance (e.g., standing for the siren) while maintaining internal identity boundaries. Furthermore, the study identifies a paradox in language dynamics: while Palestinian Arabic is often “securitized” and viewed with suspicion in staffrooms, teachers successfully leverage their linguistic background as “intercultural capital” to build empathy with students. The research finds that shared-identity mentors provide an essential “third space” for processing experiences of racism that are otherwise silenced within the school hierarchy. These empirical results demonstrate that teacher retention in conflict zones requires active institutional protection to prevent professional status from collapsing into national categorization.

This article explores how Arab social work students in Israel conceptualize solidarity, navigating between ethnic identity, community loyalty, and universal professional ethics. Using a phenomenological qualitative approach, 25 in-depth interviews were thematically analyzed. Findings revealed that students view solidarity as a multidimensional phenomenon, including moral value, emotional empathy, daily mutual aid, and professional identity. A distinction emerged between takaful (communal-religious mutual support) and tadamun (moral trans-border solidarity). The study highlights the tension and interplay between identity-based and universal solidarity, offering an indigenous perspective that bridges local cultural values with global ethics in social work practice.

The article broadens the definition of “memory activism” by examining the interplay between national and personal commemoration of the fallen in times of war. The personal voice is usually perceived as opposing the national-heroic commemoration narrative. The Iron Swords war has created a new articulation between the two—the sticker—which has become ubiquitous in the Israeli public space. The sticker combines the picture of the fallen soldier with a sentence unique to them. It thus represents a personal, transformative voice, acting from the bottom up and adhering to the characteristics of memory activism. A visual analysis of the phenomenon suggests that although the stickers create a new vernacular of commemoration, the transformation they enact relates to the meanings and roles that are ascribed to personal memory by using the personal to reinforce the national-heroic discourse. These findings recontextualize the definition of memory activism in light of the geopolitical conditions created by the war.

Whether the school day begins with “prayer,” “contemplation,” or “meditation” – each word will evoke different reactions. This study delves into the relationship between conceptualizations of spirituality and attitudes toward its assimilation in institutionalized education. The case study is a governmental secular-traditional network of schools in Israel. The research aims to find out what stances do parents and faculty hold on the introduction of various alternative-spiritual practices and contents to elementary schools. The major finding is that all sectors are willing to incorporate spirituality in schools (parents much more than teachers). Terminological issues came up as crucial in the responses.

This study explored the potential of research-practice partnerships (RPPs) to advance the implementation of educational innovations. Amid the global pressure for school improvement, schools are driven to design and implement their own initiatives. We focused on two schools engaged in a research-focused RPP, where practitioners and academic researchers collaboratively examined schools’ innovative practices. Through within-case and cross-case analysis, we illustrate how involvement in school-research influenced schools’ decision-making. Findings from the school-based research prompted leaders to expand their initiatives. The cross-case analysis revealed distinct improvement pathways: one school focused on curricular development and pedagogical refinement, while the other implemented structural changes and provided targeted teacher support. For both schools, the RPP promoted practitioners’ professional development, encouraged evidence-based practice, and enhanced their school reputation. This study illustrates how RPPs can empower schools to use local evidence to foster context-specific improvements and instigate organizational change.

All Arabic-speaking children grow up in diglossia. They use a Spoken Arabic (SpA) variety for everyday speech but Modern Standard Arabic (StA), a linguistically distant variety, for all literacy-related spheres of use including reading and writing. Given this sociofunctional complementarity, children are continuously required to shift between the spoken and standard varieties. The study tested the contribution of executive functions (EFs) and of linguistic and metalinguistic skills in SpA and StA to listening comprehension (LC) in StA among kindergarten children. A total of 775 Palestinian Arabic-speaking children were tested on LC and sentence processing in StA, on EFs (inhibition, switching, memory), and on parallel linguistic (vocabulary and lexico-phonological representations) and metalinguistic (phonological and morphological awareness) skills in SpA and in StA independently. Structural equation modeling showed that all three EF skills were indirectly related to LC via linguistic and metalinguistic skills in SpA and StA, yet working memory showed a direct contribution as well. With respect to linguistic and metalinguistic skills, the results showed that these were interrelated across the two language varieties. Moreover, SpA skills were related to LC indirectly, via their corresponding skills in the StA, yet importantly also directly. The study demonstrates the centrality of EFs in LC in StA. Furthermore, they underscore the interdependence of linguistic and metalinguistic skills in SpA and StA as well as the direct and indirect contribution of language and metalinguistic skills in the spoken variety to comprehension in StA. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.30676223.

HighlightsWhat are the main findings?•In patients with myopathic scoliosis, both surgical and non-surgical groups showed similar worsening spinal deformity over time.•Despite similar radiological outcomes, surgically treated patients reported higher overall quality of life and functional independence, particularly in self-image domains.What are the implications of the main findings?•Surgical correction may enhance subjective quality of life even when objective spinal improvement is limited, emphasizing the importance of patient-centered outcomes.•Decision-making for scoliosis surgery in myopathic patients should carefully balance medical risks with potential long-term gains in function and well-being.Background/Objectives: Myopathies are acquired or genetic muscle diseases causing weakness and wasting, leading to poor posture, impaired coordination, reduced daily function, and scoliosis. The objective of this ambispective study was to compare clinical, radiological, and functional outcomes of patients with myopathic scoliosis treated surgically or non-surgically. Methods: We identified 118 patients (55% male) with myopathy and scoliosis from ALYN Rehabilitation Hospital’s database (1990–2022). Mean age at first visit was 5.45 ± 5.27 years. Seventeen (14%) underwent scoliosis surgery; others were managed non-surgically. Due to unbalanced group sizes, comparative group analyses used propensity score matching (15 surgical, 30 non-surgical patients). Retrospective data included demographics, medical history, respiratory and mobility status, Cobb angle (CA), pelvic obliquity (PO), and surgical details when applicable. Prospective telephone interviews were conducted including SRS-22r Quality of Life (QoL), WHO-QoL, and Functional Independence Measure for Children (WeeFIM). Results: Longitudinal analysis showed significant or near-significant worsening over time in CA (p = 0.03) and PO (p = 0.08), regardless of treatment type but no significant difference between surgical and non-surgical groups in progression rates. Interview data, for 7 surgical and 6 non-surgical patients, revealed that surgical patients reported higher overall QoL, FIM, and SRS-22r self-image scores, but lower scores for SRS-22r pain, general function, and activity levels. Conclusions: Existing research and this study suggest that despite surgical risks, scoliosis correction in neuromuscular conditions generally leads to improved QoL. Findings highlight the complexity of surgical decision-making for myopathic scoliosis, where medical risks must be weighed against potential long-term functional and QoL outcomes.

ABSTRACT This article introduces an innovative pedagogic model in teacher education based on a collaborative ‘co-creation of the curriculum’ approach. In this four-year academic programme, students and faculty jointly developed the curriculum, fostering active engagement and shared ownership. Through qualitative analysis, this study investigates whether such a partnership effectively equips future educators with essential 21st-century skills in a VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) environment. Findings highlight the model’s impact in three critical areas: cultivating dialogic teamwork, empowering independent learning, and embedding pedagogic adaptability aligned with students’ realities. This model addresses moral and value-driven dimensions in education, positioning critical pedagogy as a response to contemporary educational challenges and providing actionable insights for developing resilient, socially-conscious educators.